Op 27-5-2011 11:22, Kevin Fetter schreef: > Hi Marco and others > > I was just responding, to the where they say, The curious variations suggest that the sail is tumbling. > > So to me, they are saying, there are not sure it's not tumbling. > > Can't observe it are anything else, as it been 2 weeks, of cloud filled skies at night. Ah okay, now I get what you mean. I thought you were starting a semantic discussion... ;-) To me, the rapid continuous flashing is indeed a sign it must be tumbling. While occasional flaring might be due to changing solar angle and a fixed reflective surface, rapid flashing is not likely explained that way. With a light object such as this solar sail with presumably an unusually large surface to mass ratio, I wonder what happens if a small meteoroid (or small piece of space debris) hits a corner of it: could it transfer enough momentum for the sail to start to tumble? Clouded out here too by the way. - Marco ----- Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands. e-mail: sattrackcam@wanadoo.nl Cospar 4353 (Leiden): 52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL Cospar 4354 (De Wilck): 52.11685 N, 4.56016 E (WGS84), -2 m ASL SatTrackCam: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/satcam.html Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com ----- _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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